The Butler and the Thief
by pippychick
Summary: I tried to imagine what might have happened between Jack and Ianto to get them from the Cyberwoman episode, to that light, fun moment at the end of They Keep Killing Suzie via Ianto's thoughts in Greeks Bearing Gifts. Rating high again in case I continue.


**Author:** Pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** I tried to imagine what might have happened between Jack and Ianto to get them from the Cyberwoman episode, to that light, fun moment at the end of They Keep Killing Suzie via Ianto's thoughts in Greeks Bearing Gifts. Here is the result. Rating a little high for a kiss again, but last time I continued.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty I couldn't help myself. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

I did have a story, but it's sort of simmering away in the background there. And really, since it will be a very smutty story it probably won't be here when I_ do _writeit. But for now, I found myself rewatching the first series all alone with my tonsillitis that just won't go away, and I wondered what could have happened between Cyberwoman and They Keep Killing Suzie to get Jack and Ianto on such good, relaxed terms. Ianto's thoughts in Greeks Bearing Gifts aren't exactly all happiness and light.

So, here is my little effort to make some peace between them. It's quite a bit heavier than my other story on here about the date. Just wanting to warn you about that. I've tinkered and played with it for ages, and I'm just not sure if it works. It's likely that to get it right, it'd really need to be more than one scene, and a general lightening of the atmosphere... I don't know. I have tried my best.

This hasn't been beta read either. I hope you enjoy it.

**The Butler and the Thief**

Everyone else had gone home for the night but Jack, who never actually left. Ianto walked up the few steps to the office carefully so as not to spill the coffee, silent and respectful, opening and closing the glass door behind him in the same unobtrusive manner. Everything else had been done but this one last thing, and he was nothing if not perfectionist and attentive to detail. In another life, he would have made a very good butler, or a librarian. Perhaps, both. Ianto put the coffee on the desk – and then hesitated.

Jack hadn't opened his eyes at Ianto's approach, and now he rolled his head on his shoulders tiredly with a sigh, and no wonder, since as far as Ianto was aware Jack had been sat in here all day with paperwork. There was pain, and there was a quiet rage within him. Not really towards Jack as such. Not for Lisa's death. Even Ianto knew it was too late by the end; he just couldn't bring himself to kill her. She had needed him. No, his rage was not directed at Jack. Not as such.

Besides which, since that time, everything seemed to be hollow pain, and the only moments of lightness came from Jack. His constant flirting still hadn't stopped. After everything, it made Ianto feel almost human, which was strange because at times, he just wasn't sure about Jack.

Ianto took a short moment to look at Jack sitting there with his eyes closed before moving behind the chair, leaving the coffee on the desk. He gently laid a hand on Jack's arm as a warning, and as he had known, Jack wasn't asleep. He didn't sleep. Always observant, Ianto had known that secret from the very beginning. Jack's eyes opened but he said nothing as Ianto moved his hand up and began to massage the tension from Jack's shoulders. Something about Jack made you want to touch him and Ianto found himself enjoying what he was doing far more than he should. His hands followed the lines of the braces as he pushed them from Jack's shoulders. Jack was fighting it, but in the end he began to make little ahh's of contentment.

"You don't have to do this," Jack said eventually, his voice deep as he leaned forward in his chair to give Ianto better access.

"Oh, I think I do, Sir." They were quiet for another couple of minutes except for Jack's occasional groans of tired pleasure. Jack's body was warm underneath his palms, heat soaking through the shirt, and Ianto found himself wishing that the thin material wasn't in the way.

"You have strong hands," Jack noted, and Ianto suddenly drew back as if aware of what he was doing for the first time. He wasn't quick enough though, and Jack caught his hands only to pull them over his shoulders to study them. "Good hands," he said suggestively, fingertips tickling at his palms like electricity and Ianto tried to pull away.

"It wasn't enough," he said, startled into revealing his innermost thoughts, his mind never far from how he had failed Lisa. It took up all of his life now.

"I know," Jack said, his voice uncharacteristically heavy with sorrow. "I'm –"

"No," Ianto intoned, breaking in, shaking his head slightly as Jack let his hands go. He rested them on Jack's shoulders, remembering how Jack had insisted on him executing Lisa. "This is mine. Don't you dare to try and take it from me." Everything he had done, and it hadn't been enough to save her. Not only that, but Lisa had killed more than one person. There was silence between them for a minute.

"I said you didn't have to do this." Ianto looked down and found himself absently rubbing at Jack's sore muscles again. He sighed and continued. What difference did it make?

"I'm here," he said, as if that was explanation enough. After so many weeks of quiet misery, something in him wouldn't be silent, and he took a deep breath, remembering how Jack had said he would execute them both. Him and Lisa. "Why didn't you kill me as well, Jack?" he said, his voice bland and listless. "I lied to you."

"Is that what you wish?" Would he do it now, if he was asked for it? Ianto felt something cold run through him, and he considered the last few months carefully.

"I'm here," he said softly. "That's all I am. Here." Blackness of death, blackness of life. The only difference was that life had to be endured. After everything that was meaningful had gone, there was still existence.

He couldn't ask for it, after all, and after a few minutes of silence, even the massage was over. Ianto walked slowly towards the door; restrained, self-contained, master of himself as always. Despair and dignity hand-in-hand at either side of him, as though he were made for them.

"I need you, Ianto," said Jack suddenly from behind him at the desk, and Ianto halted in mid-step. He didn't turn around, but kept his steady gaze on the way out. Strange. There was no way out, not really. Not from this, and a part of him had known all along that it was coming. Jack wanted something from him, and now he was ready to take it.

"No." Ianto shook his head in refusal, and he could imagine Jack standing behind him so clearly he almost shivered. He remembered Jack's words, heard them ringing in his head even after all these weeks. _Your loyalty is to us now._ But he knew Jack meant far more than that. Despite all of his protestations that day, what had happened had never been about taking Lisa from him. Rather, it had been about Jack taking him from Lisa.

"I want you," Jack said, his voice deep and relaxed after the massage. It was impossible to miss the meaning of that statement, and Ianto looked down at his hands accusingly.

"That would be stealing," Ianto pointed out. His heart felt as though it was made of marble, and the blood in his veins slowed to a crawl.

"Yeah," Jack said, and Ianto looked around. Jack wasn't stood behind him at all; it had just been his imagination. Jack gave him a somewhat bitter, self-deprecating smile. "I'm kind of good at that."

"You're a thief?" Ianto asked, turning slightly, curious despite the weight of the conversation and what had been said between them.

"Amongst other things." He was playing the mysterious card again, and Ianto decided that he didn't have the energy to be intrigued by it any more. Whatever Jack was hiding, whatever he was hiding from, Ianto was sure he didn't want to know. His own secrets had been unforgivable, yet somehow here he still was. He was certain Jack's secrets were worse.

All of this, the perfect trap, set by an opportunist, but Jack was much more. Ianto had watched him since he began all this. Consequently, the fact that Jack couldn't die had surprised him, but not to the extent of some of the others. "I said you were the biggest monster of all." He had been right. He still meant it, and he saw that Jack realised it because he only smiled.

"Well, I saw you," Jack said, confidence oozing from every pore as he got up and walked over to where Ianto stood near the door. "I saw who you are, what you were capable of, and I wanted it for the team. I wanted it for myself. And now you have no secrets from us, more than any of them, I know I can trust you. I need that more than you realise. I do need you, Ianto Jones."

So this is what it came down to? Stealing. No matter that it was he himself. Ianto shook his head and reached out behind him for the door handle, eyes on Jack all the while. "No," he said, resolute, and turned away.

"You and me," Jack said into his ear. "Don't tell me you haven't considered it."

"You don't sleep," Ianto observed carefully, keeping his breathing deliberate and even, "and so you can keep me here. But the morning will come. You can't stop time."

"Oh, and you're certain of that, are you?" Jack asked, his voice kitten soft with playful menace. Ianto had no idea if Jack could do such a thing, and he was frightened, but he had no intention of allowing it to work on him. He forced the breath in his lungs to exit his mouth in a sound of disbelief and held onto the door handle as if it was his salvation.

"There's nothing out there," Jack reminded him. "Nothing but more of the same. You know that."

He stared blankly through the glass. Jack was right. "I'll take my chances, Sir," Ianto said, polite even now, and made to pull open the door, but a hand landed hard on the glass near his head, keeping the door shut.

"Just..." Jack was wearing that little grin, somewhat cold, completely irresistible, and Ianto looked at him, seeing far more than any of the others. "Think about it."

"What's to think about?" Ianto asked sharply, feeling a little righteous anger come to the surface. "What are you offering me, Jack?"

Whatever he had been expecting, Jack's response wasn't it. "What do you want?" he asked. "A raise?" Money would be nice, but it couldn't purchase what Jack wanted. "Secrets?" Ianto thought about that one too, for longer than he wanted or expected. "Sex?" He felt himself respond to that one as well, and Jack pulled him around only to kiss him as an example, as if sensing the weakness.

_I never dreamed of this_, Ianto thought desperately in denial as he kissed Jack back. The memory of that breath of life, Jack's lips on his, was close to the surface now. Ianto had missed the taste of him. And now, with the addition of time, there were other things to notice.

It had been a long day, and he could feel Jack's stubble just slightly rubbing against his own. The scent and the sheer presence of the man surrounded him as if they were in their own little bubble. And the heat... that was there, all over him. Jack's hands roamed over his body, teasing him, making him want... oh, so much. Those generous lips, firm pressure. Truth be told it was bloody good. Too good to stop. _Year__s upon years of practice, _Ianto thought dizzily, and was mortified to hear a muffled groan of lust and desire come from his own mouth. The door handle was at his back, and it made him arch and press into Jack until it was over, and they stayed close together, foreheads touching, breathing heavily and louder than before.

Jack was as seductive as the devil, and Ianto only wanted more. _Tempt me_, he thought, wanting to make it into a plea.

"What are you doing to me?" he demanded with his hands in Jack's hair, wanting to pull him closer and taste it again, needing to push him away and gain some clarity.

Jack smiled. "I'm making you an offer you can't refuse. Doesn't it feel good?"

At last, Ianto gained the presence of mind to push Jack away from him a little. "How do I know you mean it?" he asked quickly. His mind raced, and he came up with the perfect solution. "Tell me a secret," he challenged, expecting a refusal.

Instead, he saw a shadow pass over Jack's features, and his eyes darkened as he swallowed. He leaned forward and whispered something into Ianto's ear. When he pulled back, Ianto remained carefully expressionless. Jack stared at him, uncertainty on his face for the first time. At last Ianto almost smiled.

"I think I like Jack," he said quietly. "It suits you." They were silent for a moment.

"The, erm, sex –" Ianto began, intending to refuse it.

"Oh, I'll throw that in for free," Jack said with a salacious grin. "It'll be my pleasure." Ianto shook his head, but he couldn't deny it was what he wanted. He was not stupid though, and he saw what was happening more clearly than he really wanted to.

"What you want from me," he said, looking away so that he didn't meet Jack's gaze and falter. "And what you're offering. They're the same things only presented differently." There. It was out in the open, and for all the tricks it occurred to Ianto that he and Jack were completely compatible. Ianto looked then and found Jack gazing at him speculatively. It took a moment for him to recognise admiration, but when saw it, he couldn't unsee it, and it made up his mind for him. Jack smiled.

"Then say yes."

Ianto didn't even blink. "Yes." They stared at each other for a long moment, while the heaviness passed. Truth be told, it would have come to this even if they never spoke of it. The emptiness needed to be replaced with something, or he would perish, and since he had remained at Torchwood it was inevitable that the team – that Jack – would come to fill the empty space that was left behind. He was human, and he was still alive. It was the way of survival to replace what was lost.

Eventually, Ianto cleared his throat. "Is there anything else I can do for you before I go, Sir?" He had asked this question so many times since Lisa. Never had it made him feel as nervous as now – not even that first day afterwards. He also knew Jack too well to expect a sensible answer.

Jack looked him up and down so brazenly that Ianto allowed the barest hint of a smile to reach his eyes. Seeing Jack like that made the pain he lived with retreat just a little. Which one of them had won, Ianto wondered. Maybe they both had. "Oh, I think that there is," Jack said in happy amusement, taking his hand and pulling him away from the door. "You see, I have this terrible secret... I can never sleep..."

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and it made some kind of sense. Please consider leaving a review. Constructive criticism appreciated too :)


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